1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of entertainment systems and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for automatically configuring a system based on a user's monitored system interaction and preferred system access times.
2. Background Information
Numerous advances have been made in recent years in the field of entertainment systems. For example, programming guides are now prevalent on many cable systems throughout the country. In one embodiment, these programming guides are offered on a particular channel within the cable broadcast, and provide programming information for the next several hours. More advanced ones of these prior art systems may allow the user to interact with the program guide to manually select a particular program to record or view.
Another example of advances in entertainment systems has been the advent of parental control, wherein a person may "lock out" or require a password for channels that may be unsuitable for certain members of the family. Equally impressive advances have been made in audio devices, video recorders/playback devices, etc. A number of these devices allow a user to manually program the device to record a program given appropriate information regarding the program (channel, date, start time, end time, etc.). Other current systems allow a user to manually "add" and "erase" channels and thereby generate a preferred "channel surfing" order. For example, the user may erase channels 3 and 4 in order to pass directly from channel 2 to channel 5 when channel surfing. However, with these systems the channel surfing order must be manually programmed by a user and must be manually re-programmed by the next user if he or she desires a different order. Typical prior art entertainment systems are not capable of automatically and dynamically configuring the entertainment system in accordance with a user's monitored system interaction (e.g., the channels a user watches and the times of day he or she watches them). Furthermore, typical prior art entertainment systems are not capable of altering their configuration based on what times (e.g., 5:00 pm-8:00 pm) the system is accessed.
Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for automatically configuring a system based on a user's monitored system interaction and preferred system access times.